I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

[Sima Tuna]

Victory Road is the biggest name that comes to mind for top-down arcade slashers. There's also that Valkyrie no Densetsu game.

Never forget the rad tunes of Ikari Warriors 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87DcElXi9eM

Or maybe you like a cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQy8M_HSCks

And the OG:

https://youtu.be/XcB91a72Jd4

^I wish all of the old Ikari tracks were given spicy covers with real instruments and proper high quality audio. Sometimes the arcade versions of these songs sound a little gutless due to what I assume are limitations of the hardware. The individual melodic elements can become a little fuzzed together too.

[BIL]

Ugh. I suppose Konami's Dark Adventure (NA) is technically a topdown platform slasher, but holy fuck it's also an unplayably gluttonous quarter-muncher. Seriously shocking; best forgotten! Some potential there, but the lifedrain just ruins it. AFAIK, anyway... I don't think I've seen any 1CCs, let alone 1LCs. I was a bit too shell-shocked to look tbh. X_X

Its later JP/EU rev, Majuu no Oukoku / Devil World, is radically rebuilt, and drastically improved. But the slashing weapons are gone entirely, just big honkin guns instead. Even blags the Life Force powerup meter, and announcer!

The ACA release includes all three revs, luckily, so you can experience NA's woes at safe distance, then enjoy a vastly more competent - if still plenty ornery - game in JP/EU. De rigeur with Hamster's Konami releases; see also ACA Thunder Cross, XEXEX, and Trigon. (not sure how bad those games' overseas revs actually are... I know they're missing mechanics across the board, but I've never put serious time on 'em. Dark Adventure isn't just inferior, it's goddamn unplayable)

Victory Road is the biggest name that comes to mind for top-down arcade slashers. There's also that Valkyrie no Densetsu game.

Never forget the rad tunes of Ikari Warriors 2:

Oh hell yeah, Victory Road/Ikari II/Dogo has some genuinely underrated hard rock. Legit Toa-Bushi and GAMUSHARA, befitting a gun/sword slasher that's all about reckless valour! I'd never seen anybody praise its BGM over the years, at least in English, and after the first stage, I expected further operatic tunes, ala its companions Ikari and Guevara. Then CRUEL KILLERS crashed in, right as a biblical enemy horde got steamrolled into crimson carpet. Instantly wanted to nail a decent run, them some fiery tunes!

> Cruel Killers (power chord barrage reminds me of Bloody Wolf's opening motorcycle rampage - also, one for the Evocative VGM Titles thread!)
> Run To The Field (fiery! IKARI, even! traversing the hellish battlefield, cutting down fiends left and right! )
> Count Down (the only stage BGM used twice, in succession at that; classy mid-tempo for the tough final stretch)

Faaack, they coulda brought back any of those for KOF ala Psycho Soldier and had 'em go down a storm. Then again, they already sound so goddamn balls-hard. Obada-san mentioned deliberately beefing up Ikari's sound hardware to drown out other cabs; guess Dogo benefitted, too.



Ah man, had to redo all my old links, they dead. All creature will die and all the things will be broken Worth it though! :3 Mata ne, Roaring Atmosphere. I love how they stepped up the first game's un-steppable FURY with that expression of cosmic wrath. I wish you could hear Ralf's rad "YOOSH! IKUZO!!" war cry in-game without dying first, though!

And gatdamn, reminded of the SWORD MASTERY at the heart of this game. First 1LC, the st3 Angel screwed me, spawning my Armour offscreen. "Powwa da?" More like "Powwa...? WAAA!" 3; Frightful creeping into the death valley gauntlet ensued. Second 1LC? Screwed AGEEN by that shitbird TENSHI, to autonomic "You think I give a FUCK?! response. Don't hide from MG nests and tanks, rush the bastards down swinging your blade!



^^^ THEY'RE NOT JOKING KIDS ;3

Quietly the strongest of its iconic trilogy, imo. Ikari and Guevara have mighty highs, but also some difficult snags. Dogo's smoother and more generous, yet just as rivetingly tactical. Damn, this is the kind of stuff I never thought would receive decent home translation. I hope they work with SNK again; I'm still pining for the sublimely good Search And Rescue to get that Hamster TLC.

[hamfighterx]

Curious to see if NMK's SDF Macross gets the Christmas spot this year. Seems likely, as an STG with a famous IP; Hamster long giving shooters pride of place.

Your rock hard intuition is correct. They actually announced the December 26 release date when they announced it was coming to Arcade Archives with premium pricing: https://www.famitsu.com/article/202410/22101

Kinda feels appropriate to me, good STG to show off, and the very rare instance of a higher price for the game does make it feel like a bit more of a special release.

And I guess that means with the usual Wednesday appearance on western PS4, the game is actually released ON Christmas this year! NA Switch will surely be the usual reliable Thursday ~9am Pacific eShop update.

[BIL]

Haha. Thanks for confirming!

I can't lie, I'd swap it for the brilliant caravan hori sequel, which I consider NMK's Dragon Blaze. Their trademark streamlined chassis, with killer scoreplay integrated. But I'm just happy we know the Macross IP is viable on ACA, and that Macross 2 might show up sometime in the next couple years.

Unless, I dunno, the characters in the second game belong to some other studio... I guess my mind goes to the worst places pre-emptively, with dream ports. AFAIK, the Japanese side of the IP is sound though. Haven't heard any of that Harmony Gold nonsense that plagues Robotech fans.

All this said, I've never actually played the first game, and I always enjoy NMK's STGs, from their roughest to most refined. So I'll nab this one without hesitation. And of course, it's the official STG of Eastenders! As a prodigal son of Crumpetland it's my civic duty.

---Crossposting from the Directory Thread---

Is it me or does it feel like the 15hz autofire is the same as 30hz. I generally use autofire where available, but 30hz just seemed way too fast. Dropped it to 15 and it still feels crazy fast.

Yeah, 15/20/30hz do feel quite similar, and seem to get comparable kill times on gems. (shooting them until they disintegrate entirely).

I suspect 30hz is valuable in certain contexts, though, given the effort TZW_Guile and TYR_Yeti describe in perfecting it for this port. Really interesting thread by TYR here, on his experiences with analogue/synced autofire on the System 16 board over the years, and the tuning of the ACA version.

Apparently, the recent Astro City Mini version doesn't emulate the board's slowdown accurately. So some were surprised when the ACA version's BGM tempo dropped during autofire, just like it will on the PCB. Hamada mentioned this on the Arcade Archiver episode, it seems. TZW's comment.



For my humble part, I'd forgotten the game's odd two-button charge input for Level 2 magic. Makes Cotton 2's FTG commands seem less unexpected, haha. For my initial dabblings this evening, I settled on three buttons, ABC layout. [manual shot] [manual bomb] and [30hz shot+bomb]

This way I have the Charge Attack (hold bomb), L1 Fire/Beam (hold shot), and L2 Homing/Barrier (hold both) ready to go, while 30hz shot+bomb takes care of general crowd control. L2 Magic won't trigger if you hold down rapid shot + rapid bomb buttons, even at matching frequencies; I guess the game waits a few frames to register, with that very handy audio cue. "Baiyahh~!"

With the item juggling, there are times it really pays to shoot without bombing, or vice-versa! I'd forgotten how aggressive your Option Faries' rolling bombs are; anything on the ground is getting hammered. Feels rad. Also, I find the manual tapping is quite comfy in this game, with generously fierce output. So I was doing quite a bit of that, too, especially when sniping gems for just the right colour.

Overall, I'm pleasantly reminded of just how articulately this plays, between the charge attacks, juggling, and tricky enemy design/placement. Homing's trick shots almost feel like a Force Device, and Barrier's body-ram is life-affirmingly tactile, just like TYR recommended. Great game I can appreciate more now than I did back then.

How awkward! But you won't escape my fairy wrath! (｀w´メ)

^^^ (X)68000 default hiscore ala TFIII, daww

[Sima Tuna]

So would you say the hamster/arcade version is better or the sharp/ININ ported version? I read the breakdowns posted earlier but neither version stood out to me based on what I was reading.

I kinda feel like going with Hamster just to support the work they're doing on ACA. But I assume the ININ port has multiple save slots and training modes.

[BIL]

Hm, I suppose that comes down to the arcade original vs X68k expanded remake. I never considered them the same game, so to me the ACA release fulfils a different role.

I should specify I mean the X68k port included with Cotton Reboot; the latter of which I've barely played, now I think about it. I pretty much bought it for the bundled X68k ver, which always sounded like amazing work. I was happy to see Reboot get a good reception, though.

Actually, now would be a logical time to revisit those, so I'll fire 'em up to refresh my memory.

EDIT: Surprised to note what feels like a bit of input lag in both Reboot and its X68k port, booting them up after playing the ACA version for several hours. Nothing major, just not quite as pinpoint-sharp. Tea Time is notably slower+sparser on the X68k PS4 defaults, but getting the bonus still felt a bit tricky.

ACA/PS4 Tea Time vs X68k/PS4 Tea Time

My DS4 pad is in atrocious shape - as always, a month of arcade gaming flattened its underlay to surly mush - so I'm sure that exacerbated any possible latency difference. Just jumped out at me when switching over from ACA. Feels like the sort that vanishes after a bit of muscle memory.

EDIT2: Yeah it seems fairly slight. Went from ShotTriggers Darius Gaiden, to Reboot X68k, to ACA Cotton. Adjusted to RbX68k pretty fast, before noticing the sharper response of ACA.

I'm gonna put Reboot and ACA on my PS5, whose dpad is a bit stiff imo, but at least hasn't collapsed into ruin after basic use.

EDIT3: Yep, non-destroyed dpad helped RbX68k. Not as pin-sharp as ACA, but serviceable enough.

But yes, these are effectively different games. New stage layouts and boss attacks, exclusive new bosses, plus a host of mechanical tweaks like a dedicated magic button, which tbh the AC game could've used. This even before considering the gorgeously redrawn, parallax-boosted wide-res graphics. I love the AC's chibi-grim look, but X68k often looks good enough to frame. I guess I'd go with AC if I had to choose, just for its resolution's extra-punchy immediacy. But I'm sure you could have both with no sense of redundancy whatsoever.

Man though, I have always loooved AC st2's climactic scene. Especially the aftermath, following a fast-paced air/ground battle, and a spiritedly mobile boss. Such a perfect vibe of tranquil afternoon sepulchre. So restful. Procession moves on, the shooting is over ♫

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Last Konami game of the year:
High Speed Car Chase Action with City Bomber
Can you catch the criminals?
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202412/26393

Two more entries before NMK-Banpresto's Arcade Archives Macross.

[BIL]

Hmm, one of those late 80s Konami titles I've managed to never see over the years. Name's familiar but that's about it.

Can you catch the criminals?
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202412/26393

Technically it's "Can you escape your fellow criminals, and/or the cops?" Arcade Antihero / Villain CONFIRM

Massive Spy Hunter/Battle Formula vibes! I wonder how involved the shooting/combat is. Battle Formula is unquestionably a racing STG ala Moon Patrol, Shippu Mahou and Cloudphobia... this looks to have inherited significantly from Road Fighter and Burnin' Rubber, too. Interested to see if there's any apparent influence on Sunsoft's game.

EDIT: Holy fuck, that intro! Masterful in-engine cinema.

EDIT2: Yep, holy balls, that there is a heavily-armed Racing STG. Directory cleared for takeoff.

[Marc]

Having that, I'm a sucker for anything Spy Hunter-ish.

[Lemnear]

I tried Gunnail for the first time...and for the first two stages all it did was scream

Spoiler

"PROTO-DONPACHI"

Change my mind.

[BIL]

Did a little light reading on SDF Macross 2's titular license, the OVA series Lovers Again. Interesting production story... but what I really wanted to know was if Big West owns the rights to the characters. Seems they do indeed, having produced the series themselves sans Studio Nue.

tbh, Hamster could edit Hikaru and Max in there and I wouldn't care, as long as it played accurately. But naturally, it's better to avoid that. Of course the upcoming Christmas release is based on the iconic movie Do You Remember Love, which even casuals like me recall. Title song playing in my head as I type this, haha. ;w; Actually I recognised "My Boyfriend Is A Pilot" in Scrambled Valkyrie (SFC), too. Kyuu, kyuu~

I wonder if Hamster might sneak in SDF Macross 2 sometime in 2025, as a quick followup to the more famous DYRL license. Or maybe go for a consecutive Christmas release? They'll figure it out, I'm sure. If Thunder Dragon 2 was my "Yeah that's never getting home" port, Macross 2 was the "Yeah that's double never."

I tried Gunnail for the first time...and for the first two stages all it did was scream

Spoiler

"PROTO-DONPACHI"

Change my mind.

As trap has pointed out, Gunnail has some interesting parallels with their earlier Task Force Harrier. Besides the Gunpods, there's also their sharing of a unique slowdown routine. I was pleasantly surprised, with Harrier EX (Genesis) being one of the few STGs I got to play as a kid, and Gunnail being a total no-hoper for console until relatively recently, via ACA.

Like Harrier, I always got the classic Toaplan Sniper Tank vibe from Gunnail, just like Raiden and Trigon. OTOH, Gunnail's more generous weapons wouldn't be out of place in the later V-V or Batsugun. Big fat screen-sweeping parallel lasers, and a hungry hungry Homing Flamethrower.

Relentless Icy Accuracy vs HOMINGU FIYAHHH

I wonder if middle-era Tatsujin and SameSame might've been any influence on NMK, there. See also Athena's Daioh, a conspicuous Tatsujin-esque. (their previous Strike Gunner STG recalling Compile and IREM, imo) Of course Harrier's powered-up Gunpods were already pretty spectacular, with bullet-blocking and contact-killing properties, too!

As for DonPachi, while Tsuneki Ikeda has often cited Battle Garegga as instrumental to DoDonPachi, I don't know if he mentioned similar inspiration for the earlier game. I always felt like the progression from V-V to Batsugun Special to Donpachi was pretty smooth, but maybe he or other key personnel have expressed similar towards other games?

What I wonder about is the multiplier. Did any game prior to NMK's reward you for ditching all your reserve lives? It's a pretty fiendish way to get at the player's coins. I can only think of Winkysoft's later beltscroller Denjin Makai II.

[hamfighterx]

Massive Spy Hunter/Battle Formula vibes! I wonder how involved the shooting/combat is. Battle Formula is unquestionably a racing STG ala Moon Patrol, Shippu Mahou and Cloudphobia... this looks to have inherited significantly from Road Fighter and Burnin' Rubber, too. Interested to see if there's any apparent influence on Sunsoft's game.

Having that, I'm a sucker for anything Spy Hunter-ish.

I was totally unfamiliar with City Bomber (1987), but upon seeing the screenshots in that Famitsu article my immediate reaction was that it looks to be rather brazenly copying Sega's Action Fighter (1986) with the car transformation gimmick. Not that I view that as a bad thing; I love Action Fighter, Spy Hunter, and games of that ilk.

Also interesting to see four straight games with no Namco titles (and only 1 Namco game in the last 10 releases, counting this week's).

What I wonder about is the multiplier. Did any game prior to NMK's reward you for ditching all your reserve lives? It's a pretty fiendish way to get at the player's coins. I can only think of Winkysoft's later beltscroller Denjin Makai II.

I love Gunnail for its quirkiness. One of my absolute top highlights of the Arcade Archives series. Also really like the rather unique "Hi-Speed Stages" 3 and 6 that serve as a bit of an intermission. Almost feels to me like some sort of evolution of Galaga's Challenging Stages to break up the action with a precision challenge, combined with some "racing STG" elements by collecting the speed up medals and amping up the scrolling speed. I always feel like I'm playing some weird Galaga/Kingdom Grandprix mashup on those stages. Fascinating tie in to the discussion about City Bomber and racing STGs!

I'm not aware of earlier examples of rewards for riding your last life/shield, but I find it interesting that it also isn't a mechanic that has been copied too often since then. I still find it unique when I encounter a similar mechanic. In shooters, the similar mechanic that it makes me think of would be games like Akai Katana that give you auto-bomb, but only on your last life. Or in a fighting game context, always got similar feelings from the King of Fighters games that allow you to use super moves with no super meter cost once you're below a certain low HP threshold - a buff to the player as they get closer to death. Thankfully, the flashing red HP bars in KOF don't come with an obnoxious siren like Gunnail (mandatory praise for Hamster giving an option to toggle that noise off!)

Another recent non-STG example that I encountered is Umbraclaw by Inti Creates (2023): platformer where you are a cat that has nine lives, and you get additional power-ups with each death. Would be kind of fun to see a STG play with those kinds of ideas a bit: you get the pea shooter on your first life and have to play the game on hard mode, but as you die you get bigger and badder power-ups. A bit of a reversal of the Gradius struggle to keep your power ups intact, and instead of being severely punished for death you get more and more assists until you are riding on that final credit/life with all the big guns. A different approach to rank systems that ease up on the difficulty upon death.

[Acid]

Fine; I'm buying Gunnail, even though that style bullet is hard for me to see.

[Sima Tuna]

Bullet visibility was a major problem for me in Gunnail. The ship hitbox is also massive, so be warned.

[BIL]

I was totally unfamiliar with City Bomber (1987), but upon seeing the screenshots in that Famitsu article my immediate reaction was that it looks to be rather brazenly copying Sega's Action Fighter (1986) with the car transformation gimmick. Not that I view that as a bad thing; I love Action Fighter, Spy Hunter, and games of that ilk.

Ah yes, I completely overlooked Action Fighter! I know the name and genre, but only ever saw clips (and bad boxart IIRC?), here and there. Sega's 80s arcade stuff holds no end of blind spots for me, no thanks to Sega themselves. I loved the title screen stacking one Badass Action Vehicle after another, like "Yo check out this motorbike, hold up we got an attack chopper, wait a sec here's a dune buggy and a Viper and a Jetski"

Ho ho hoooly balls, I know everyone including myself wants more mid/late-90s boards, but I'd happily go for a Namco-style multi-year marathon of Sega's 80s/early 90s canon.

I love Gunnail for its quirkiness. One of my absolute top highlights of the Arcade Archives series. Also really like the rather unique "Hi-Speed Stages" 3 and 6 that serve as a bit of an intermission. Almost feels to me like some sort of evolution of Galaga's Challenging Stages to break up the action with a precision challenge, combined with some "racing STG" elements by collecting the speed up medals and amping up the scrolling speed. I always feel like I'm playing some weird Galaga/Kingdom Grandprix mashup on those stages. Fascinating tie in to the discussion about City Bomber and racing STGs!

Damn, forgot about the speed stages too! They pre-date Shippu Mahou by years, even. Hell of a rush once you get the groove of speedkilling heavy targets and snatching up medals.

Really happy to see City Bomber has 60hz/PCB toggle. I love Road Fighter on FC and PS1, but struggle to enjoy its ACA release as much; consistent as it is, the framerate hitch bugs me in high-speed vertical scrollers. While I quickly forget about it when concentrating, I'd much rather not deal with it at all.

City Bomber has some interestingly-balanced design. Stages 1 and 3 are open-plan feelgood ram n' blast, can be played pretty much improv. Seem meant to build up your kill ratio. I'm glad the other cars are canonically "ENEMY," because holy cow do you commit a lot of vehicular homicide here; I'm the kinda tree-hugger who's ambivalent on murdering holiday traffic in ESPRade's mall stage. >_> You want to, as well; # of kills = time restored for next stage.

The scenery destruction is impressive; entire buildings taken out by skidding cars and stray grenades. The third stage's simulated dips are super cool, love the pseudo-scaling effect. Bringing down those asshole choppers is so wickedly satisfying, I get the feeling the staff harboured a few destruction junkies. There is a certain explosion SFX any Contra Hard Corps fan will know, which can be heard at that game's title pop, and any time something large blows up, after. I always likened it to a car crash. Happy to discover a possible ancestor here, in this demolition derby; unmistakable grainy BAKOWW. Conversely, BGM is suavely intense, very unlike my usual likening of Hard Corps BGM to a photocopier fucking a fax machine. (fondest compliment)

In stark contrast to the other three courses, Stages 2 and 4 are harshly technical, full of deadly hazards and swerves. Exactly the brutal yet infernally compelling short-term memo trial I associate with this subgenre. ("Salamander Escape Sequence: The Game") Both are absolutely blistering to take down at speed, very satisfying. Stage 5 is a convincing final trial, more a test of endurance with several long, wide-open areas that become lethal at high speed.

>Stage 2 demo
>Stage 4 demo
>Stage 5 (Loop 1 final) demo

I like how Stages 2 and 5 really want you to nail the Red cars for their Buzzsaw powerup; lets you tear straight through the otherwise dangerously tight forest. A little hassle early on, for a massive break further in. Use of the [brake] button seems pretty critical in stage 4, on the middle section's turns. I put it on R1, with [shoot] and [jump] on face buttons. Nice n' comfy. It's actually more of a "decelerate" button; you can tap it to drop your speed by increments, avoiding the [up] directionals to stay at lower throttle. Handy for sections where you want a bit more reaction time. You can get the same result by pressing [down], but taking your hands off the wheel can be deadly. Stage 5 might bewilder at first, with its vast horizontal span, but can be satisfyingly pared down to a series of breakneck slaloms.

Konami sure kept the volcano love going in 1987... that's this, Flak Attack, and Majuu no Oukoku with scenes of molten peril. These are interesting; the rocks won't kill you even on a direct hit, but they will shunt you into the lava. As with st2's nervously pit-strewn bridge, I got the best result by decelerating a tick, quick enough to stay ahead of the rocks, not so fast I couldn't stay on the road.

Nice sensible margin between safer steering and balls-out MAXIMUM SPEED. Could see this being a quality time trial game. I like that there's a definitive second loop, too. I wonder how the loop develops. This is a rare case where I could see an identical second run being just as compelling, if your remaining time carries over from the first set.

EDIT: Ahaha, oh man. I'd hoped that's what I was seeing. Buzzsaws aren't just for cars and trees.

Spoiler

Legit don't think I've seen or even heard of that before! Some Riding Bean shit, two years earlier. MFW

[Jeneki]

Oh man I got addicted to Burnin' Rubber and this gives me the same vibes.

[Steven]

Late as always when it comes to ACA, but what's the deal with BEEP's reissue of X68000 Cotton from a while ago? I have it, but I sadly don't have an X68000 to check if any changes were made to it.

[BIL]

Good post by Kino:

Anyone familiar enough with Cotton to compare the arcade version to the X68000 version? (the one included with Cotton Reboot)

Since the differences between arcade & X68000 already got covered, I should point out there were further tweaks made to the Reboot version of X68k. Most are negligible, but the damage rebalancing is pretty annoying; bosses take way longer to kill (on higher difficulties, I don't think you can even beat the Serpent boss other than by timing it out...)

[Steven]

I mean the one that's actually on X68000 (both 5 and 3 inch floppy) that they did a few years ago.

[BIL]

That's the one I was thinking of too. I'd assumed that's what they ported to PS4 as a Reboot bonus; I could easily be wrong, though. SuperDeadite might know.

EDIT: Hm, new character in the BEEP X68k reissue?

As far as I know, there is no PC version. Last year's release was only for real X68000 machines. It's basically the same as the original, but with the new girl and a new super easy (beep) difficulty setting. The screens you have seen are from real X68000s or emulation.

[Steven]

Yeah, I have no idea. I think it is likely to be the one that's in Reboot, but...

I need to get back to playing Reboot and Rock 'n' Roll. They got buried by other stuff, sadly. Also just now remembered that both of those have sequels on the way, too.

Also need to actually buy a damn X68000 eventually as well... once I get a bigger house and actually have room for it.

[SuperDeadite]

I never bothered with Reboot, as I have had a real X68K and the Sys16B pcb original for well over 10 years now which is the best of both worlds. (Plus PCE version for the rock tunes.)

Comparing OG X68K Cotton and Beep X68K Cotton, the games are exactly the same except for Trouble Witches girl and the Beep (Super Easy) difficulty as far as I can tell. To be fair, I've never made it very far on YOU DO (hardest difficulty) mode though, so I can't vouch for that. On YOU DO every enemy in the game launches homing suicide bullets that will spin circles around you. Good luck lol.

[BIL]

Cheers bud.

[OldSkoolShmuper]

Aside from Macross, will we get any Christmastime surprises this month?

I'm hoping for one: Parodius Da!, Thunder Fox or R-Type Leo.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Aside from Macross, will we get any Christmastime surprises this month?

I'm hoping for one: Parodius Da!, Thunder Fox or R-Type Leo.

You never know what'll be released this month, especially from St. Nick himself.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Kino]

I never bothered with Reboot, as I have had a real X68K and the Sys16B pcb original for well over 10 years now which is the best of both worlds. (Plus PCE version for the rock tunes.)

Having played every variant apart from the cellphone port, Reboot's "arrange mode" is the definitive way to experience Cotton 1. Also a wholly unique beast in practice, compared to either X68K or Arcade.

Arcade was good, but also a product of it's time; very static patterns, scoring's a (largely uninteresting) milkfest, power-downs upon death are excessive, 2nd loop just lazily doubles enemy HP, etc. X68000 was a marked improvement, but I'd mainly recommend it for bragging rights, at this point. 1CCing "You Do!" should be a rite of passage for any Cotton faithful.

Studio Siesta did a bang up job modernizing the formula with Reboot's arrange. They took all the best parts from X68k, but additionally, we now have actual scoring depth in the form of Deathsmiles-esque fevering & blackened crystals, four new magics, little mechanical tweaks like using your broom to kill enemies behind you (Gun Hohki fan on dev staff?), and a nice coat of visual polish to top it all off (they even got the original character designer back on-board to oversee it, making it look a bit higher budget than Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy. plz bring him back for the sequels ;_; ) If there was an option for the PCE soundtrack + a perfect port of X68K mode, it would obsolete every other release of the game. It's everything one could desire out of a reimagining.

[SavagePencil]

City Bomber is a lot of fun! Smoother than Sega’s spastic, confusing Action Fighter, less manically intense than Speed Rumbler…it’s kinda chill with its own intensity? Definitely a hidden gem.

[SuperDeadite]

I never bothered with Reboot, as I have had a real X68K and the Sys16B pcb original for well over 10 years now which is the best of both worlds. (Plus PCE version for the rock tunes.)

Having played every variant apart from the cellphone port, Reboot's "arrange mode" is the definitive way to experience Cotton 1. Also a wholly unique beast in practice, compared to either X68K or Arcade.

Arcade was good, but also a product of it's time; very static patterns, scoring's a (largely uninteresting) milkfest, power-downs upon death are excessive, 2nd loop just lazily doubles enemy HP, etc. X68000 was a marked improvement, but I'd mainly recommend it for bragging rights, at this point. 1CCing "You Do!" should be a rite of passage for any Cotton faithful.

Studio Siesta did a bang up job modernizing the formula with Reboot's arrange. They took all the best parts from X68k, but additionally, we now have actual scoring depth in the form of Deathsmiles-esque fevering & blackened crystals, four new magics, little mechanical tweaks like using your broom to kill enemies behind you (Gun Hohki fan on dev staff?), and a nice coat of visual polish to top it all off (they even got the original character designer back on-board to oversee it, making it look a bit higher budget than Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy. plz bring him back for the sequels ;_; ) If there was an option for the PCE soundtrack + a perfect port of X68K mode, it would obsolete every other release of the game. It's everything one could desire out of a reimagining.

Meh, I enjoy the older versions as they are. Don't need Reboot. I don't even have a console newer than X360 lol.

[Acid]

I bought Gunnail. I have a feeling the last life sound is why I originally passed it over.

[Ice Beam]

I bought Gunnail. I have a feeling the last life sound is why I originally passed it over.

You can turn it off in settings.
It's the greatest extra Hamster has yet put in their releases.